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December 15, 2010

Life After Caffeine

Oh, coffee, how I loveloved you

I am here to proclaim (and before I do, no booing or tomato-throwing, please) - THERE IS LIFE AFTER CAFFEINE.

I, former happy and willing addict, am living proof.

I was willing to try anythingto get rid of, or to at least reduce, this curse of migraines which has befallen me these past five years. So, when the doctor recommended the Migraine Diet, I was desperate enough to try it (because giving up caffeine isdesperate). I've been on it now for over three months.

I am still alive.

"No caffeine consumption whatsoever" was at the top of the list - a near death sentence for someone who used to say, "Coffee is my best friend - second to Jesus, of course." I just LOVE coffee. Loved it, I should say. It is now officially part of my past.

I thought weaning myself of my happiness-in-a-cup would be hard. I was wrong. It wasn't hard at all. I am serious. It took 5 days.

By slowly reducing the size of the mug...

...then the strength of the coffee...

it wasn't bad.

No withdrawal symptoms whatsoever. I mostly just missed the taste.

Here are some of the amazing benefits I have experienced from no-octane living:

more energy. How can this be, you say? I don't know. You have to experience it to believe it.

Gone are the permanent knots in my shoulders, which often led to tension headaches. My shoulders are now soft like buttah.

I sleep FANTASTIC. I fall asleep quickly, stay asleep, and wake up very well-rested.

...therefore, no need for Sleepytime Teas, or sleep aides of any kind

Calmer nerves

Increased emotional stability

Little to no anxiety (mine was apparently caffeine-induced, or immensely aggravated by caffeine)

No more highs and lows in energy level over the course of the day - just steady energy all day

I like life post-caffeine. And it HAS significantly helped my migraines. Not at first, but now I see a difference. Because I can handle stress better, and there is no caffeine in my system to contract then dialate my blood vessels (thought to be a cause of migraines), I just don't get them as much.

Tony was so impressed by the overall change in me that he gave up coffee, too!

So, there you have it. God answers prayers in strange, unexpected, and sometimes normal ways that don't always involve huge healing miracles. Just a small change in diet, and wham-o. Answered prayer. Imagine.

1 comment:

We quit drinking coffee too after the last time you were here. We actually weren't trying to but I started drinking hot chocolate made with raw cacao powder (which is a really great superfood) and all of a sudden I had no desire to drink coffee anymore. I know there is some caffeine in the cacao powder but it isn't the same. There are no highs and lows, only steady energy all day long and I never crave any more the rest of the day. It used to be that I couldn't drive past a Dunkin' Donuts or Starbucks without pulling in. It was so strange that I asked Christian to try the experiment since he was more addicted than I (he would say he wasn't addicted but just liked the taste). The same thing happened. Absolutely no desire for coffee. He couldn't get over the fact that he didn't want it at all anymore even in the afternoon on a really cold day. There is no addiction to the cacao either because I could easily not have a cup in the morning but I do because it is so healthy (and yummy).

I read somewhere once that coffee mimics a certain neuro transmitter that your brain needs to function properly but doesn't do the job right. So I am wondering if the cacao powder supplied the correct neuro transmitter and thereby made quitting easier because that solved the addiction problem. I am not sure.

I do agree though. I thought I couldn't function without it and now we are very pleased to see that we feel way better without it.

Ann Voskamp's

James 1:22

"Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says."

Unknown:

"Missions is not the 'ministry of choice' for a few hyperactive Christians in the church. Missions is the purpose of the church."

Oswald J. Smith:

"We talk of the Second Coming; half the world has never heard of the first."

Nate Saint, missionary martyr:

"People who do not know the Lord ask why in the world we waste our lives as missionaries. They forget that they too are expending their lives ... and when the bubble has burst, they will have nothing of eternal significance to show for the years they have wasted."

Oswald J. Smith:

"No one has the right to hear the gospel twice, while there remains someone who has not heard it once."

Amanda Berry Smith:

Pat Morley:

"If the Great Commission is true, our plans are not too big; they are too small."

Carl F. H. Henry:

"The gospel is only good news if it gets there in time."

Count Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf:

"I have but one passion: It is He, it is He alone. The world is the field and the field is the world; and henceforth that country shall be my home where I can be most used in winning souls for Christ."

Hudson Taylor

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C.T. Studd

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Oswald J. Smith

"The mission of the church is missions"

William Borden

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James Calvert

When James Calvert went out as a missionary to the cannibals of the Fiji Islands, the ship captain tried to turn him back, saying, "You will lose your life and the lives of those with you if you go among such savages." To that, Calvert replied, "We died before we came here."

John Piper

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K.P. Yohannan, founder of Gospel for Asia Bible Society

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George W. Peters

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Homeschooling in Argentina

Robert Savage, Latin American Mission

"The command has been to 'go,' but we have stayed — in body, gifts, prayer and influence. He has asked us to be witnesses unto the uttermost parts of the earth ... but 99% of Christians have kept puttering around in the homeland."